McFadden bumps Cable from headlines

Finally home from Houston after a long travel day, wondering what was going with Napa PD v. Tom Cable, only to find out Darren McFadden is out with a bad knee.

McFadden tore his meniscus in an unspecified knee, Cable said at the top of his press conference (I didn’t get back in time for it and just saw the transcript). The starting running back is expected to miss 2-4 weeks.

What does this mean for the Raiders offense?

With the ongoing struggles of the offensive line and passing game, nothing. It doesn’t matter who the running back is. McFadden, Michael Bush, Justin Fargas.

If the offensive line can’t block, they have no where to run other than into defenders at or behind the line of scrimmage. If the passing game never gets over the 40% completion mark, teams will continue to load the box and dare them to throw.

The bigger concern is McFadden’s durability. Last year’s No. 4 overall draft pick missed three games with turf toe injuries that hobbled his entire rookie season. He also injured his shoulder in his second game and needed offseason surgery.

Mind you, that’s three injuries in 20 games without being an everydown back … a major reason McFadden is not an everydown back, and why the Raiders insist on carrying three starter-quality running backs.

Cable didn’t say who will start Sunday at the Giants. The way they play defense up front, it probably doesn’t matter.

** Speaking of Fargas, he was surprisingly critical of the play call that resulted in him getting tackled 5 yards deep in the end zone for a safety at Houston.

Surprising, because Fargas never says much of anything. Here’s what he side of the right-sweep pitch from the Raiders’ 1.

“I don’t want to be like TO and say we can only go with the plays that are called, but it’s tough,” Fargas said. “I think in that situation you want to try and get downhill. We were running an outside play, we were using a hard cadence. Things were working against us. In that situation you want to do anything you can to get the ball out of the end zone, in a backed-up situation, and we didn’t do it. We didn’t execute the play. May have not been the best play at this time. And it just … just all bad.

The hard cadence was intended to draw the Texans offsides, but Fargas said that doesn’t work when the crowd is louder than the cadence.

“You have the risk-reward factor, you understand that. But you’re on the road and you can’t really hear the snap count anyway. I felt like they got off the ball before we did and knocked us back a little bit.”

** Speaking of play calls, Cable said he hasn’t considered passing the play-calling to someone else on the staff after his offense came under 200 yards for three straight games — something never done by the Raiders in stats going back to the 1970 merger.

“Not really because, if it was putting us in the wrong place at the wrong time and all that, then I think I would need to really sit down and think about that,” Cable said. “Right now it’s trying to find us some rhythm and find us–where our comfort level is if you will, in terms of executing fundamental run plays and pass plays.”

Truth is, if there is a change at offensive coordinator, Cable will have nothing to do with the decision. It will be owner Al Davis who pulls the plug.

Last season, Davis forced Lane Kiffin to share play-calling duties for a week with Greg Knapp before firing Kiffin. Knapp took over after that but was replaced by Cable within a month.

** There are no new developments in the Cable-Hanson, just a bunch of national reports saying what the local guys said when the case first opened.

Cable might get suspended by the NFL. Cable might get arrested by the police. It’s up the D.A. to make the call on charges.

There’s nothing new to see here.

“I have not thought about it because I know the truth and the process will take care of itself. So I trust that,” Cable said.

** Everyone keeps asking me why Javon Walker isn’t playing but Cable never gives much of an answer. Today, he did, saying it was about Walker’s desire to play and the Raiders’ desire to play the young receivers. Louis Murphy makes sense because he is the only receiver producing, Sunday’s five drops aside.

Darrius Heyward-Bey clearly isn’t producing but he’ll get every chance to live up to his No. 7 overall pick status.

“If you watch Darrius, his opportunities are coming more, albeit one or two at a time, but they’re coming more,” Cable said. “He’s catching the ball, he’s open more. You see it coming. When you look at that you’d retard it if you took him off the field. I don’t think that would be the right thing to do.”

At day’s end, they’d rather let DHB learn on the go than see if Walker has anything left in his knees — and there’s a very real chance Walker has nothing left. From the sounds of it, we’ll never know.

The next question is this. If DHB can’t have his growth retarded by bench time, who sits when Chaz Schilens comes back? They won’t run three-receiver sets all day. Someone has to sit.

If it isn’t the least productive receiver, then no one can say they are doing everything to win.

** Going back to the run game struggles, the Raiders cut Pro Bowl veteran Lorenzo Neal in camp because they thought Oren O’Neal was ready to roll.

Well, he apparently isn’t. Luke Lawton cut into his playing time Sunday and figures to get more snaps at New York.

“I mentioned it last week a little bit,” Cable said. “I didn’t think he quite played as well the last couple of weeks. He’s kind of been hit and miss. Just want to continue to have that competition out there and put Luke in an opportunity to help us win games and we’ll see how Big O responds now.”

** And speaking of blocking, right tackle Cornell Green is out two weeks to a month with a calf strain.

Erik Pears may start there but he has struggled wherever he plays, whether right tackle or left guard. You’d think Khalif Barnes would step right in, but Cable said they still have to get him “trained at a couple of spots.”

What they’ve been doing with Barnes all this time then, who knows. He’s been back from a broken ankle for three weeks.